


A Room with a Bench

by OrangeNeko



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Awkward Crush, Cute Frisk, Determined Frisk, F/M, First Crush, Frisk Needs A Hug, Gen, One Shot, Other, POV Frisk, Romance, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-24
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:57:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9901643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrangeNeko/pseuds/OrangeNeko
Summary: Frisk is considering her current feelings about a certain skeleton during a quiet moment. Wrote this while listening to the Waterfall music in Undertale.





	

Frisk took in the translucent turquoise glow of the dozen flowers surrounding her, pensively chewing on the mildly disgusting quiche that had been left under the bench while she swung her legs. Biting does on the wet spongy egg again, Frisk stretched her leg to nudge the flower closest to her.

“I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility,” the flower sighed. Frisk frowned. This was the first time Frisk had been in this room, despite making it to Waterfall in several other timelines. Putting the half-eaten quiche to the side, she laid down on the damp wood. Parts of it had started to decay and splintered slightly under her small frame. The room itself steeped in a stagnant rotting wood smell.

“What if I did just stay here?” thought Frisk. She emptied her mind, just trying to focus on the ever present sound of water, savouring the feeling of the room. New experiences were becoming rarer; each one was precious and deserved contemplation. She knew soon she would have to face Undyne. She had never made it past that point. . . Well, at least not without making a mistake. She shied away from the thought of her first run-through, trying to focus on her most recent memories with the skeleton brothers. 

It was getting harder to leave them each time. She was staying just a bit longer, laughing a bit louder at their antics, trying to hold herself back from hugging them too much or acting too familiar. Frisk rubbed the dried ketchup stain on her sweater from her hangout with Sans at Grillby’s, thinking back on the recent moment.

“well, if you insist. . . i guess i can pry myself away from my work,” Sans had replied with feigned reluctance, pushing himself away from from the crude wooden structure and standing up. Frisk’s heart skipped a beat in anticipation as she followed him through his ‘shortcut’. Stepping into the bar, Frisk took it all in again. She adored this moment, wished time would stop. That her journey could just be an endless loop of this, again and again and again. Everyone was smiling, laughing, happy. Sans was in his element, a funny guy playing to the crowd. When Sans invited her to get comfy, Frisk almost slammed her bottom into the seat, only the quickly deflating cushion of air from the whoopie cushion stopping her from a bruise. The first time, the tiniest shrek of air through the rubber had caused her to immediately bolt up. Now she knew what a cherished memory this would become. 

Next was what she wanted to order, ‘burger or fries?’, ketchup? ‘Yes or no?’. Frisk could practically feel her heart jumping out of her chest with excitement. What would she pick this time? Since when did little choices like this make her feel so excited? Did she want to play it safe and relive the moment exactly, or try something new? Would something new cause her to make another mistake? She hesitated over the decision as Sans looked at her expectantly, momentarily forgetting to revel in how happy this moment made her feel, the joke she would laugh at next. Frisk glanced over at Sans. She could never tell how much Sans remembered. 

“F-Fries” she stuttered. Sheesh, no matter how many times she returned to this moment she was still always a little off-kilter under Sans’ scrutiny. Right away though she was back in the moment. She loved how the corners of his eyes softened when he talked about his brother. Frisk knew she always liked him a little more than she should. She couldn’t help but take note of everything little thing he did, every twitch of a facial bone. As much as he was playing her, she was playing her own little game in each timeline. How would he react if she said yes to this? No to that? He always seemed one step ahead of her no matter what she said, but she tried to take note of the answers that would lengthen the conversation or cause his face to take on an especially gentle or happy looking grin. He ordered the same thing she did, he always did. Giggling with Sans over Papyrus’s antitics, Frisk already decided she would say ‘ketchup’ when the mouthwatering smell hit her nose as Grillby came out with their identical dishes. This had felt like a timeline to try something new. 

“bone apeptit,” Sans winked.

Red splattered all over the table, a drop falling onto her sweater as Sans laughed. She froze, watching in terror as the second drop slowly fell into her lap. Wide-eyed, staring up at Sans’ sarcastic grin. He stopped chuckling: “whoops! eh, forgeddaboutit. . . you can have mine.” He pushed his clean fries towards her. She looked over at the ketchup bottle, realizing that she had just shaken it a little too hard, causing an minor ketchup explosion all over the fries and most of the table. She stiffly smiled at Sans, letting out a forced laugh, but it was too late to get back that happy moment. Besides, Sans would want to talk about that creepy flower again.

“I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility.” The plaintive words of the echo flower broke Frisk from her thoughts after her foot had accidently brushed it. She did have responsibilities. Responsibilities to everyone here in the underground and, especially, to Sans and Papyrus. I wish there was something I could do for them, she thought. Something more immediate than continually trying to spare Undyne, and failing. Her foot pushed the long stalk as far back as it would go and released it, again. 

“I just wasn’t ready for the responsibility.”

Frisk sat up, and started to wrap the picked-over quiche to put it into her backpack. Her gaze returned to the echo flower. Maybe, maybe a gift this time, she thought. To them, for hosting you. Normally you just leave them, not even really saying goodbye. Who knows if you’ll even get the chance to see them again if you make it past Undyne. Something to remember you by, even if they just forget.

Frisk untied the bandana from around her neck and ripped it in half. She buried her fingers into the soft soil to dig out the roots of the echo flower. Luckily, they were shallow, and soon she had two tall stalks, each in their own separate bandana half. The corner of her mouth quirked. The flowers looked too similar, one should be shorter. 

“Lots of love and thanks to my new friend Papyrus! (Platonically, of course!) Thank you for being such a great host,” she placed her face next to the petals before spouting off the silly phrase.

“Lots of love and thanks to. . .” Frisk paused and blushed, feeling foolish. Feeling like the phony message didn’t match how she really felt about the grinning skeleton.

She pressed her face closer to the flower and paused. She thought about how she really felt about him, about each time she got to be close to him. She could smell the faint aroma from the flower, almost like geraniums. Moved her face closer so her lips just grazed the petals. She closed her eyes and murmured, “I love you, sans.” 

Stupid, Frisk thought to herself. The silly crush of a kid, although she hadn’t aged since she came to the underground, she knew that much time couldn’t have passed. She pushed Papyrus’s flower to get her mind back on the message.

“I love you, sans,” it sighed.

Frisk let out a little huff. Of course it records your most embarrassing thoughts. Well, this empty room will be the place you to leave your unwanted new feelings. You had responsibilities. She picked up the two flowers and walked back over the bridge she had made, scattering the bridge seed flowers so no one could easily find the room. She hummed quietly to herself to erase the previous messages, and headed back to the brother’s welcoming doorstep over in Snowdin. Frisk knocked on the door, but no answer. She ran upstairs and placed a flower in each respective brother’s room.

“For the great Papyrus, best pasta-cooker and royal-guarding-in-training, thank you for your hospitality and for becoming my new friend. I’m off to finish my journey, but I am so happy to have made such a tremendous friend along the way.”

“For Sans, the punniest guy I know, thank you a skele-ton for letting me get to spend time with you and your brother, and the awesome fries at grillby’s. The ketchup stains on my sweater were a small sacrifice to make. I hope we get to hang out again.”

Frisk closed the door to Sans’ room with a small smile. Let him ponder how you figured out the password to get in. She sat on the sofa to reorganize the contents of her backpack, procrastinating. Her hand paused over the pink tulle of the tutu she found under the waterfall while wandering. Pulling the frilly garment over her shorts, she gave it a little test spin, enjoying the way the material floated around her. She had never worn this before. Shrugging, she thought, maybe this is a timeline for firsts. Filled with determination, Frisk made her way back to Waterfall, and to the waiting Undyne. 

Frisk strode over the pink flower bridges, pumping her fists with each stride. She didn’t even pause as she passed by the room she had been hiding in before. 

A small breeze from an unknown source spun through the lonely room and the empty bench, stirring the flowers. “I love you sans,” the flowers murmured among themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about how often in Undertale it's really easy to just want to keep reliving the same moments over and over again and not move forward, especially with Toriel in the beginning. You want to keep replaying them but also start to run out of different options. I was also thinking about how at least when I would get a crush someone, you can just kinda keep playing a 'best of' moments of them in your mind wanting the dissect them or do them better. Sometimes you just want to hold those feelings in your mind even when you might be torn about telling the person so you can move forward (they can reject or accept you) or squash those feelings down and decide to give up on the crush. It's uncomfortable and bittersweet but you don't want to do anything to move forward or give up.
> 
> Sorry if that was long and confusing, but the undertale characters are super lovable.   
> Also sorry for the cheese at the end, I couldn't resist.


End file.
